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Witnesses tell House panel Cuban medical missions generate large revenue and can involve coercion
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Summary
Human Rights Watch and witnesses at a House subcommittee hearing said Cuban medical missions produce large state revenue and that participants face coercive conditions; witnesses disagreed about whether broader embargo measures or targeted multilateral sanctions would be more effective.
Witnesses described Cuban medical missions as a major source of hard currency for the state and raised trafficking and coercion concerns during the subcommittee hearing.
Juan Pappier of Human Rights Watch said the Cuban government receives "6 to $8,000,000,000 a year through this, medical doctors," and that interviews with returned medical personnel document strict controls on movement, restricted passports, limits on whom they may meet, and large deductions from wages. He testified that in some cases "85%" (HRW figure cited in testimony) of the mission payments are retained by the state.
Maria Worlow, co‑founder of the Free Society Project’s Truth in Memory Project, said her organization has compiled roughly 11,500 individual records of victims of the Cuban regime and described interviews in which a doctor reported being paid about $250 while the mission was paid $10,000 per month for that deployment. "We have around 11,500 individual records of victims," she told the panel.
Panel members pressed for evidence and for policy responses. Chairman Smith emphasized enforcement and targeted sanctions as tools to deny resources to officials and entities responsible for abuses; other members and witnesses urged multilateral coordination and cautioned that broad sanctions could deepen civilian suffering if not carefully designed.
No legislative action was taken at the hearing; members left the record open for written submissions and additional material.
